Review: The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Title:The Lying Game

Author:Ruth Ware

Published:July 2017, Gallery/Scout Press

Format:ARC Paperback, 384 pages

Source:Publisher

From the instant New York Times bestselling author of blockbuster thrillers In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10 comes Ruth Ware’s chilling new novel.

On
a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal
village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she
can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first
appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be
something much more sinister…

The next morning, three women in
and around London—Fatima, Thea, and Isabel—receive the text they had
always hoped would NEVER come, from the fourth in their formerly
inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.”

The four
girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set
near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way,
the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying
Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty,
with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing
enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and
complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other—ever.
Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But
their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in
their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding
the death of the school’s eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also
happens to be Kate’s father).

Atmospheric, twisty, and with just
the right amount of chill that will keep you wrong-footed—which has now
become Ruth Ware’s signature style—The Lying Game is sure to be her next big bestseller. Another unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.

My thoughts:Ruth Ware is quickly becoming another must-read author! She writes such chilling and tense psychological thrillers and yet each one is so different – it’s not the same old that we read time and time again. 

What I loved about this book is that it’s more of the slow-burning, character-driven psychological thriller than her other books have been. While there has been a crime committed, it has been committed in the past, not the present. A lot of the action takes place in the last quarter of the book – and WOW, does that last part really take off! But prior to that, the book alternates between the present and the past, where the mystery is really explored through the four women’s memories. This I found to be extremely clever! 

This book will play with your nerves…it will get under your skin as more and more details from both the past and the present emerge. You will feel the stress that Isa is under – it’s that palpable. You will question whether “The Lying Game” and the guilt that Isa is feeling is justified or whether she is not being entirely truthful? 

This is an extremely taut and tense read. The suspense builds slowly and then takes off. It’s atmospheric and chilling and addictive – once you start reading this, you will be hard-pressed to put it down!